Life Insurance following death of my husband

KAFrancis

My husband passed away from cancer a few years ago and always said to me, ‘at least I know you’ll be alright because I have life insurance.’ We never discussed anything more about it, mainly because of everything going on and it was the last thing on our minds. I contacted his work not that long ago because I found some paperwork to do with a private pension (which he had taken out prior to his death to live on) and it stated that he didn’t need life insurance because he had sufficient cover through his employment. I contacted his employer and they told me that he had no benefits, but that if I provide them with paperwork, such as a deferred pension entitlement, they can look further into it. All I have is his private pension paperwork stating the above. He was made redundant a few months before he died because we knew the cancer was terminal and there was no chance of his return to work. I wonder if this is why there are no benefits because he was no longer employed by them. Is this allowed, as death in service becomes a nonsense if they get rid of you beforehand, surely? 

[Deleted User]

 Its death IN service. Its not applicable once he's left. 

 Did he choose voluntary redundancy? 

xylophone

I found some paperwork to do with a private pension (which he had taken out prior to his death to live on) and it stated that he didn’t need life insurance because he had sufficient cover through his employment. 

With which company was this pension held?

Was he actually drawing on this pension before he died?

Did he have an occupational pension with his former employer (s)?

And are you sure that you haven't overlooked an insurance policy?

xylophone

 He was made redundant a few months before he died because we knew the cancer was terminal and there was no chance of his return to work. 

Are you saying that he was made redundant because he was terminally ill? Or he opted for voluntary redundancy because he was terminally ill?
Was there a redundancy payment?
Was there no mention of any pension arrangement he may have had at this time?

KAFrancis

I know it is death in service, but he was made redundant for health reasons, which seems a bit odd, knowing that maybe the benefits don’t apply once he’s gone and wondered if that’s allowed. He wasn’t drawing on his pension, it was with equiniti.

KAFrancis

I know very little, which is stupid, I know. I’m sure he was made redundant and had no redundancy payment because he drew all the money out of his three private pensions for us to live on.

Keep_pedalling

KAFrancis said:

I know very little, which is stupid, I know. I’m sure he was made redundant and had no redundancy payment because he drew all the money out of his three private pensions for us to live on.

One option for someone with a terminal illness is to to take their pension as a lump sum regardless of their age, and this sounds like what happened here. Making someone redundant because they have a terminal illness is illegal.

xylophone

I’m sure he was made redundant and had no redundancy payment because he drew all the money out of his three private pensions for us to live on.

Assuming that your husband was working for this company for a number of years, it would be very odd indeed for there to have been no redundancy payment.

You say that he had three private pensions and he drew out all the money - as terminal illness payments?

With regard to Equiniti, have you checked that they are not the administrators of  a deferred pension in an old occupational scheme?

And are you certain that your husband had not taken out life insurance?

KAFrancis

I can’t find any paperwork of a private life insurance. He was quite high up at work, so I feel that he would’ve had benefits through work and I know he didn’t take out a pension from work. I’ve contacted them and they told me they can’t find any benefits, just to supply the deferred pension entitlement certificate, which I don’t see he would’ve had if he was only 50. I thought that making him redundant was illegal. 

Dox

KAFrancis said:

I can’t find any paperwork of a private life insurance. He was quite high up at work, so I feel that he would’ve had benefits through work and I know he didn’t take out a pension from work. I’ve contacted them and they told me they can’t find any benefits, just to supply the deferred pension entitlement certificate, which I don’t see he would’ve had if he was only 50. I thought that making him redundant was illegal. 

If he didn't join the work pension scheme (and I wonder why not - any idea?), it's quite possible that could have impacted on any life cover his employer might have provided to employees. Not joining an employer's pension scheme is quite unusual, because he would have missed out on the employer's contributions to his pension and may have had a lower level of life cover, or possibly none at all.

Taking out his own private pension was an odd thing to do - any idea if he was 'advised' by a financial adviser to do so? If so, it sounds as if there might have been confusion about the life cover aspect.

It's possible your husband's employment was terminated on grounds of capability, albeit described as 'redundancy' (often for the best of reasons). There's a good layman's explanation here of the position: https://www.mariecurie.org.uk/help/support/diagnosed/recent-diagnosis/about-work

Perhaps writing to his former employer, asking for information about the grounds on which his employment was terminated and what settlement was agreed (there may not be one, especially if he'd only been there a short time), might be the next step. 

You might also consider contacting TPAS (free and impartial help: https://www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk) with the pensions-related paperwork you've found if you need help to clarify what you're seeing. Crucially, who wrote the letter about life cover not being needed?

This must be a dreary and depressing time for you. I'm sorry my post contains so much speculation, but in the absence of hard facts, it is difficult to draw valid conclusions on anything. 

Keep_pedalling

KAFrancis said:

I can’t find any paperwork of a private life insurance. He was quite high up at work, so I feel that he would’ve had benefits through work and I know he didn’t take out a pension from work. I’ve contacted them and they told me they can’t find any benefits, just to supply the deferred pension entitlement certificate, which I don’t see he would’ve had if he was only 50. I thought that making him redundant was illegal. 

If he was not part of the company pension scheme then he would not have had any death in service benefits, in which case being “ made redundant” would be beneficial as he would have received a redundancy payment rather than nothing.